


I miss Charlie

by Canon_Is_Relative



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Episode Tag, Episode: s09e04 Slumber Party, Families of Choice, Gen, POV Dean Winchester, Protective Dean Winchester, Sibling Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-23
Updated: 2015-05-23
Packaged: 2018-03-31 19:16:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,007
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3989605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Canon_Is_Relative/pseuds/Canon_Is_Relative
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Yeah, you're allowed to stress when your surrogate little sister follows some strange chick into Oz.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I miss Charlie

**Author's Note:**

> I came across [this](http://www.buzzfeed.com/kmallikarjuna/all-the-characters-on-supernatural-should-be-ashamed-of-them#.cu3BoqVZO) yesterday:
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> And was reminded that I wrote this little thing last year after watching "Slumber Party." As far as I'm concerned this is what happened: Charlie followed Dorothy to Oz, they slayed all the bad guys and raised 2.4 kids in a castle with an emerald picket fence. You can't tell me otherwise, don't try.

“I miss Charlie.”

“Dude, it’s been like, 23 hours.”

“So?” Dean drained his glass before glaring up at his brother. “There’s a statute of limitations on missing someone now? Sue me.”

Sam blew out a long breath, scratching the back of his head before closing his computer. “You, uh, you wanna go watch more ‘Game of Thrones’?”

“Eh,” Dean shrugged, looking away as soon as Sam met his eyes. “Not really.”

“Okay, then…what? We just ate, you want another drink or something?”

Dean glared at him. “Did I say something that sounded like ‘oh Sam please fix all my problems for me’? Come on, dude, lay off.”

Sam spread his hands. “Fine, I will, if that’s what you want. You started it.”

“How did I start this?”

“You said you missed Charlie, I was trying to, I dunno, be helpful.”

“How is being a giant dork supposed to help me not miss someone who isn’t you? Dumbass.”

“Fuck you.”

“Yeah, whatever man.”

Silence reigned as they turned back to their own pursuits — Sam killing time pretending he wasn’t looking at weird nerdy porn (because seriously what else could be so interesting on the internet) and Dean watching the ice cubes melt in the bottom of his tumbler.

Heh. Tumbler. Tumblr. He knew what that was, now, thanks to Charlie. Wished he didn’t, honestly, even though it was a little funny to think about all those nerds living out their nerdy lives in their nerdy corner of the internet. Maybe that’s what Sam was up to, after all. Tumbling things. He had looked altogether too intrigued when Charlie showed them how it worked. Dean shook his head, sent his thoughts rolling in another direction. Charlie’s face, lit up like the sun just before she stepped through that gateway, following her dreams and one smoking hot babe into a whole new world.

“But dude, seriously — “

“Did you think that — “

Sam cleared his throat and Dean looked away. Sam finally asked, “Did I think what, Dean?”

Dean stood up, paced over to the sideboard and poured another two fingers of whiskey over the slush in his glass. “Did you uh, did you see…I mean, her and Dorothy. Did — Dorothy seemed cool to you, right? She was on the up and up. You think?’

“Oh my god,” Sam rolled his eyes and tipped his head back to look at Dean where he stood, idling awkwardly by the bar, hands not sure if they wanted to cross over his chest or hide in his pockets. “That’s what this angstfest of yours is about, Dean? You’re stressing over her choice in girls?”

“I’m not stressing,” Dean narrowed his eyes at Sam. “I don’t stress. Don’t put words in my mouth, asshole. A dude’s allowed to worry—“

“To worry when his surrogate little sister follows some strange chick into Oz? Yeah, Dean, I get it.” Sam was looking at him with his head cocked to one side, a considering look in his eyes. The way his little brother held his jaw so carefully, kept his face consciensciously neutral, made Dean kind of want to punch things. “I mean, if it was me, you’d be tearing the place apart trying to get me back, right? So, yeah, you’re allowed to stress over it.”

“Oh, cut it out,” Dean groaned, sinking back into his chair. “This place is too awesome to tear apart.”

Sam huffed and returned to his computer. Dean let his eyes go unfocused and remembered the look on Charlie’s face, that happy glow and sparkle in her eyes when she was working on something, when she was looking at Dorothy, when she was in her element. The kid only wanted a chance, wanted her dreams to come true. She knew how dangerous it was, it wasn’t like she’d wandered into something she wasn’t prepared for. Honestly, really, after taking on a ghost and a vamp? What could flying monkeys have on that.

“Yeah you were probably right back there,” Dean said awhile later, deliberately non-sequituring so Sam would have to give him his full attention. “No place like home or whatever. Kid knows what’s she’s up against and she has our number if she’s in trouble. She’ll be fine.”

Sam shut his computer again, this time with a snap that sounded final in Dean’s booze-muffled ears. He looked up to see Sam coming towards him, Sam settling into one of the arm chairs beside him. Sam reaching out to take his glass away from him, taking a long drink himself before setting it on a side table.

“Charlie will be fine,” Sam said, slow and assured. “Charlie wants to be hunter, she wants a quest and a purpose, man. And yes, maybe here in this world, those things suck. But if this isn’t the only way, if there are other worlds where things like that…where a purpose and destiny and, I dunno, something to fight for, where all that stuff really matters…” 

Sam trailed off on a tired exhale that made Dean’s bones ache. _Didn’t we used to be young?_ Sam gave him the side-eyes, the little bastard, like there was more coming through on Dean’s face than he meant to show, and went on all cautious-like. “All I’m saying is, she’ll be fine. Dorothy seems solid, and to answer the question you didn’t ask, yeah, I think whatever-it-is between them is mutual.”

“Gross, dude,” Dean said, rubbing his eyes. “I don’t wanna know about that.”

Sam laughed, and hauled Dean to his feet. “Come on, Dean. Let’s hit the hay.”

“So bossy,” Dean grumped. “Charlie never tells me what to do.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Sam steered him forward with both hands on his shoulders. “That’s ‘cause she’s still under the illusion that you’re a superhero. Don’t worry, I won’t spoil her.”

“You’re lucky I’m a magnanimous drunk,” Dean told Sam, demonstrating this by magnanimously not smacking Sam’s paws away and telling him where he could stick his spoilers. “Or something.”

“Or something,” Sam agreed, turning out the lights behind them.


End file.
